Greatest Athlete of all time?

Kim Jong Il.

He also is the 2nd and 3rd best, ever.

Bo Jackson.

/Thread 

Edit: I said that before I looked at the brackets. The only one in the same discussion is Jim Thorpe. 

x2 for the Dear Father and Dear Leader and Eternal Secretary and "one whose birth was foretold by the sparrow and marked by a double rainbow."

If we keep this up, we may make the NK Propaganda pages...

Tell me one other person who could ever shoot an 18 on a par 72? 

If the result isn't one Jim Brown, something's wrong with the formula.  He was arguably the most dominant running back to ever play the game of football.  He was one of the greatest lacrosse players ever.  Playing basketball, he averaged 38 points per game in high school.  He qualified for the U.S. Olympics in the 1956 decathlon, but did not participate in the Olympics to focus on football.

While Babe Ruth was the greatest baseball player ever, the greatest overall athlete of all time has to be Jim Brown.

When I think athlete, my gut reaction is "fastest, strongest" but it's important to remember fine motor skills too.  Firing at lacrosse nets, soft touch on the basketball court, those count too.  Fun stuff.

Jim Brown and Jim Thorpe, were my thoughts.  A lot depends on how you define "Athlete" as that encompasses so many talents/skills/traits.  I also considered Bo Jackson, Michael Jordan, Flo Jo, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Carl Lewis, and Deion Sanders

Ali currently ahead of Allen 84% - 15%.....so much for triathlon coming mainstream.

I agree.  Both him and Tony Hawk look like fish out of water in this list.

I'm pretty sure a football player who played a defensive position but didn't like to tackle should not make the list.

Why shouldn't he be on the list?

Because of this

this

and this

I'm inclined to agree.

I think it's easier to reach a consensus on who should be included as among the greatest athletes of all time than one person--the word "athlete" is so ... vast.

In that vein I'd say Sheila Taormina. Not just because she's a friend and coach. (I *love* name dropping! Shamelessly!)

- only athlete to compete in 3 different sports in 4 Olympics (swimming, triathlon, pentathlon)

- Olympic swimming gold medalist (and she's TINY)

- triathlon (ITU) world champion

I think my top 4, in no particular order, would be:

Jim Brown 

Jim Thorpe

Babe Didrickson Zaharias

Dave Winfield

To me, World's greatest athlete requires the ability to master, or dominate in more than one sport.  Therefore, all of the single-sport GOATs get eliminated. And no, that doesn't mean that decathletes, or pentathletes should be included.  Point to any that have dominant stand-alone results in more than one disparate event.